


Small Havens

by veleda_k



Category: White Collar
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Found Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-07
Updated: 2013-11-07
Packaged: 2017-12-31 18:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1034701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veleda_k/pseuds/veleda_k
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Episode tag to 5x03. Blake stops by Neal's desk with an invitation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Havens

Neal was filling out paperwork silently when Agent Blake stopped by his desk. “Hey, Neal.”

Neal looked up, and he could feel the smile form automatically, though he could tell it lacked its usual spark. “Blake, hi.”

Blake shifted awkwardly. “A few of us were going to go out after work. We’re going to have a little, uh, memorial for Agent Seigel.”

Oh, just what Neal didn’t need right now. “Thanks for thinking of me,” he said easily, “but I have a lot of work do to.”

“It’s not going to be a lot of people,” Blake said, looking at him more astutely than Neal would have given him credit for. Too astutely, in Neal’s opinion. “Agent Jones, I mean, Supervisory Special Agent Jones, and Agent Ahmed. She had a crush on Seigel,” Blake added sadly. “And then me. And maybe you?”

It was a nice idea, it really was. But the last thing Neal wanted to do was sit around with a bunch of FBI agents honoring a man who was dead because of him. He wanted to go home and drink himself into a solitary stupor. Hell, what he really wanted to do was go to Peter and tell him everything. Neal knew he wouldn’t end up doing either one of those things, but the temptation was there. He shook his head. “Thanks, but I don’t think so.”

Blake nodded. “Sure. I don’t want to pressure you or anything. I just thought, well, we’d tell stories about Agent Seigel and remember him, even though he hadn’t been here very long and none of us knew him very well. You spent more time with him than anyone, so I thought you’d know the most about him.” Blake looked down. “And I thought that since you spent the most time with him, things might be hard for you.”

A lump rose in Neal’s throat. _We’re a family_ Peter had told him. It was true. And family tended to be there when you needed them, even if you didn’t particularly want them. “I started getting my coffee from trucks in front of banks and museums,” Neal said. “Just to make Seigel nervous when he checked my tracking data.” He smiled when that got a small laugh from Blake. “Do you think Jones and Agent Ahmed would appreciate that one?”

Blake smiled. “I think so, yeah.”

“Then that will be the first story I tell.”

After agreeing to meet in front of the office at 5:30, Blake went back to his own desk, and Neal stared at the paperwork he had been working on.

Agent Seigel had deserved to live a long, happy life, to make a home for himself in New York, to maybe even get remarried. He wasn’t going to get any of that. The least Neal could do was show up at his memorial.

And Neal could admit he wasn’t just doing this for Seigel. There was a lot he couldn’t tell Blake, Jones, or Ahmed, but there were some things he could be honest about. That he had liked Seigel. That the two of them had made a good team. That he would miss him. Blake, Jones, and Ahmed would understand that.

They were a family here in White Collar, and one thing Hagen and every other bastard out there could be sure of was that Neal would always fight for his family.


End file.
